Mark Wahlberg reveals why he initially rejected 'The Departed'

The 47-year-old actor, who essayed Sergeant Dingam in Martin Scorsese's Oscar-winning directorial, confessed he had to be convinced to star in the film

Mark Wahlberg

Mark Wahlberg has revealed he had initially rejected 2006's "The Departed" as he wanted to play "a different part".

The 47-year-old actor, who essayed Sergeant Dingam in Martin Scorsese's Oscar-winning directorial, confessed he had to be convinced to star in the film.

"'The Departed' was interesting because I wasn't committed to making the movie and my agent told Marty (Scorsese) that I was. Marty called me up and he was so excited about making this movie together.

"I said, 'I'm not doing the movie.' I wanted a different part, and I wanted some other different things. We had talked about doing it for a long time, but things happened and the studio pushed back on different things. I (told Marty) I didn't want to do it," Wahlberg, who starred in the acclaimed crime drama with Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon and Jack Nicholson, told GQ magazine.

But the actor's agent and Scorsese were convinced that he was perfect for the role and decided to make him change his mind."They sent me on a plane over the weekend to Marty's office. I read the script again, and I was pretty angry and I said again I wasn't going to do it.

"Marty told me, 'Look at this part, look at what you get to do with all these people.' He knows I'm from that (Boston) world and I talked to him about improvising and doing my own thing and he said, 'Dude, you're free to do what you want to do'," the actor recalled.

Wahlberg went on to score an Oscar nomination in the Best Supporting Actor category for the role.

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